Ads Top

Mosaiculture Exhibition 2013 at Montreal Botanical Garden

Considered the world’s most prestigious competition of horticultural art, the 2013 edition of Mosaiculture is currently on display at Montreal Botanical Garden in Quebec, Canada. More than three million flowers were raised in greenhouses throughout Quebec, and then shipped to the gardens in May, where designers wrapped them in steel meshes to create living works of art. The sculptures are created using steel or aluminum forms that are wrapped in metal mesh, filled with earth and planted with flowers, ivies and grasses whose foliage provides texture and color. Interior watering systems and growing medium were added so that the flowers could last all through the summer till the end of the exhibition on September 29.

Some 50 works graces the 2.2 km circuit through the enchanting grounds of the Botanical Garden. The theme this year is “Land of Hope”. About 200 of the world’s most talented horticultural artists are taking part in this international competition, representing 20 countries. Entries have come from cities in countries as far as Turkey and Uganda, with China and Japan heavily represented.

Mother Earth: Lise Cormier's masterpiece sets the tone for the Land of Hope theme of this year’s Mosaiculture exhibition. The mountainous matriarch's torso rises 15 meters in a prairie where horses and bison roam. Deer amble down her outstretched arms. Her hair is planted with geraniums and petunias, her skin is santolina. Photo credit

The mosaiculture sculptures will complement the vast collection of 22,000 plant species and cultivars, some thirty thematic outdoor gardens, cultural gardens, Tree House and 10 exhibition greenhouses at Montreal Botanical Garden.

Mosaiculture originated in Montreal in 2000. It is now a prestigious international competition, staged every three years in a different city, with funding from governments and the private sector. Last time, it was held in Shanghai, before coming back to Montreal again.

The Tree of Birds: Four-meter-long parrots, owls and woodpeckers, all of them species facing extinction, fly out of a tree whose canopy spans 18 meters in diameter. At its base turtles, frogs and salamanders dip into the pond below. The colors of the plants were chosen to match the plumage of the birds. Photo credit

The Man Who Planted Trees: A solitary figure stoops to plant a sapling, a furry dog covered in wild grass by his side while horses and woolly sheep covered in thyme graze nearby. This installation, which consists of 800,000 individual plants, is based on the allegorical tale of a shepherd’s single-handed effort to re-forest a desolate valley in France in the early 20th century, turning it into a Garden of Eden. Photo credit

A True Story : The most touching exhibit, set to poignant music, tells the sad story of a Chinese horticulturalist who tried to save a beloved crane in distress and drowned in the process. Here, she embraces the beloved bird, its chartreuse, pale green and blue-green foliage contrasted against her ruby-red dress while mist rises from the pond below and a flock of other cranes gather. Photo credit